One film marries the ideas of the tragic hero and dark nostalgia. In one of John Wayne’s last films, The Shootist, he plays the part of an old gunman dying of cancer. He is a man with a code who, like many historical figures (Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday) straddle the line of law and outlaw. The film opens with him riding into town. One of the first things he does is buy a newspaper. The top story is the death of Queen Victoria. Her death foreshadows his own and signals the ending of an era. He finds a room in town to rent to live out his remaining days in obscurity. However, a stable hand discovers his name on the saddle and the word gets out that the famous gun fighter is in town, J.B. Books. Everyone with something to prove challenges Books to a duel. He challenges them all to a single shootout in the saloon at a designated time. He holds his own for a while, but is outnumbered, shot and bleeding out in the saloon—he dies as he once lived. Violence follows him to the end. And with his end, a time in history also ends: the time of the gun slinger. In the death of our hero, we mourn the passing of an age.